FIREFIGHTERS and police officers from all over Spain returned home yesterday from Haïti where they had been assisting with the rescue operations.

They travelled with six Haïtians back to the military airbase at Torrejón de Ardoz (Madrid).

The team from Spain – comprising 22 police officers and 22 members of the fire brigade – have managed to rescue 12 live victims from beneath the rubble.

To date, international rescue contingents have succeeded in saving the lives of 121 people.

Among the Haïtians who returned to Spain along with the emergency services were Alonso and his 17-year-old daughter Membiline.

They were brought back to Spain for food and medical help, since there is not enough of either in Haïti at present.

Alonso lost his father and his other daughter in the quake.

The other Haïtians were Vanesa, a young mum whose own mother is Spanish, and her three small children.

All four were still very shaken and were too upset to speak to the press.

The firefighters from Madrid who returned yesterday revealed they had saved a two-year-old boy, a 20-year-old man and a 14-year-old girl.

Along with the rescue services, graduate on work experience with the UN, Natalia González Páramo, returned to Madrid.

She described the quake as 'a very long 54 seconds' and explained how she felt the UN building crumbling around her.

Natalia was then lifted out and thrown under a door-frame to protect her from the falling rubble.

She told reporters how a wall came down on top of a lorry and a bus right in front of her eyes.

All the passengers on the bus were killed instantly, but some of the lorry passengers survived.

A few of these were very seriously injured, and others escaped unscathed but in shock.

“When we travelled round the city by car we didn't recognise it – everything was destroyed,” Natalia recounts.